1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to computer graphics and, more specifically, to drawing figures in computer-based drawing applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer-based drawing applications, such as Microsoft Paint and Adobe Photoshop, have been developed to enable users (both children and adults) to draw directly on a digital canvas using various tools, such as a digital pen or digital brushes. In order to help users with limited drawing skills, some drawing applications implement templates that depict different types of real-life objects, such as airplanes, horses, dogs, and the like. When using such a template, a user draws directly over the template regions such that the resulting drawing reflects the basic shape of the depicted object. Some drawing applications may even create animations from the resulting drawing, moving the graphics drawn in the different template regions in a pre-configured manner.
One drawback to using a template in conventional drawing applications is that if the user draws lines outside of the defined target regions, such as the ears, neck, and tail of an animal template, then those lines may not be automatically associated with any of the target regions. As a result, any functionality included in the drawing application based on the association with a target region may be broken. For instance, a user may draw an ear that falls outside of the ear target region. Therefore, when the drawing application generates an animation that moves the ear target region, the user's ear may not move in a corresponding fashion with the ear target region, and the animation may appear incorrect with parts of the animal remaining motionless and disconnected from the rest of the animal.
Another drawback to using a template in conventional drawing applications is that, in certain drawing applications, incorporating pre-generated graphics objects (referred to herein as “stamp objects”) into one or more target regions of a template may require a user to resize and orient the graphics objects in order to fit cleanly into the target region. Such a process may be too difficult or frustrating for certain users, especially children.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art are improved ways to enable users to draw figures in computer-based drawing applications.